Aryans and the Indian homeland

[R.Mayer at ukc.ac.uk]

I think the hornets nest stirred up by Dominik's comments is a lot
to do with academic cultures and styles that vary from place to
place. Dom had the immense good fortune to study Sanskrit at
Oxford, and Oxford is a place that sees the kind of vigorous
debate Dom went in for as good fun and lively and interesting
and altogether to be encouraged. Alas, this style is often
misunderstood elswhere. As Julia Leslie, Dom's wife, can possibly
remember, I once stirred up a similar hornets nest at SOAS by
delivering a paper that blasted the "non-Aryan" theory of Tantric
origins to see if it could withstand such a blast. Unfortunately,
I had not reckoned on the fact that most of my audience adhered
to versions of the "non-Aryan" theory, and were outraged by my
paper. This despite the fact that Richard Gombrich, Sanjukta
Gupta, and others had all read it before presentation and thought
it hit the right tone! So what goes in Oxford (or here at UKC
for that matter) as good-fun debate is interpreted as vicious
hate-mail in circles with different cultures. I know the feeling,
Dom. But I still feel that as scholars, we must be able to debate
with vigour and remain good-humoured all the while. To have one's
pet theories blown up is a good oppurtunity for intellectual growth,
and a good reason to hold a champagne wake to happily mourn the
passing of a wrong view. As Spike Milligan observed one Christmas,
"Merry Crumble and a Happy New Era!"
Rob
(Or was it Spike Milligan?)